Last night I watched a repeat showing of the excellent 2004 documentary by C4 about the 1984 miners strike.
I had almost forgotten what a superb orator Arthur Scargill was - admittedly a misguided, arrogant, undemocratic megalomaniac and dictator but he could certainly give a great "rabble rousing" speech.
In my opinion, Scargill badly let down the coal miners - his arrogance in calling the strike without holding a national ballot was, looking back, almost unbelievable and was a godsend to the Tory Government of the day.
Had a ballot been called - which he would have won - the Nottinghamshire miners would have joined the strike and as a result the eventual outcome would almost certainly have been quite different.
Back in '84 I was living in South West Nottinghamshire (a good few miles away from the nearest pits), having just completed my "A" levels.
Home was just a couple of miles away from junction 25 of the M1 and I remember how the Police intercepted vehicles they suspected of carrying "flying pickets" from other coal mining areas.
Travelling in a friends car one Summer afternoon I remember being pulled over by 2 particularly charmless plod from The Met (on suspicion of being pickets) and who took some convincing that we were locals - good job we both had ID with us or I suspect we would have had a very long and circuitous journey home.
At the time I had great sympathy with the coal miners plight - it was clear that pits would have to close - many were nearly worked out or extracting coal from expensive to work, marginal seams.
Equally it was clear that the social consequences on the mining communities would be devastating as a way of life "died" for ever.
Could things have turned out differently - well perhaps not with the personalities involved?
Scargill had his own, very clear political and revolutionary agenda. He had seen how the pit strikes in the early 70's had destroyed one Tory Government and he aspired to do the same to Mrs Thatcher.
However, as we know, Mrs T was made of stronger stuff than Ted Heath, had spent a couple of years stockpiling huge amounts of coal and, of course, had continuing production available from Nottinghamshire.
I still believe that the outcome of the strike was close - I guess we will never know how much coal was really left when Scargill "called it a day" in early '85 but I suspect it was running out fast.
Had the lights started to go out or if shortened working weeks started would the Government compromised or would Mrs T have been forced out by Tory "wets"?
On reflection the '84 strike was a defining moment in our history.
The power of the trade unions to destabilise a democratically elected government was broken for ever, union reforms became embedded and the British economy started to make the ultimate transition from a basis in heavy industry to a basis in services and financial markets.
I still feel a sense of nostalgia and loss about the mining industry - the strength of those communities in Yorkshire, South Wales, Lancashire, Kent, Scotland, Northumberland & Durham and elsewhere is part of the patchwork of our national identity and is of course now (largely) gone.
However I am also pleased that the mines are part of our past - it was an appalling way for a man to earn a living, apart from the immediate danger of working underground there was the long term legacy of lung disease (pneumoconiosis) that so many coal miners suffered from in retirement.
It is no wonder that most miners didn't want their sons to follow them "down the pit"
I think the saddest thing about the documentary was the sense of hatred and division and the still very raw emotions that were expressed by the striking and working miners (& their families) and above all else the way that previously close families were split apart by the events of 1984 - 1985.
